A hint of exchange value is given in the implied classification of goods as usable or salable.384 But there is no discrimination between useful things in the economic and uneconomic sense. In the Revenues, on the other hand, when free from Socratic influence, Xenophon makes a positive contribution to the theory of value. He observes that the exchange value of goods varies with supply and demand, and that this law is, in a sense, self-regulative by the fact that workmen tend to enter other fields of activity whenever any industry becomes unprofitable through an oversupply of its products.385
WEALTH
The double standpoint of Xenophon is well illustrated in his doctrine of wealth. On the one hand, he values it highly, and tries to deduce practical rules for its increase and enjoyment.386 On the other hand, like Socrates and Plato, he makes derogatory comparisons between economic and spiritual wealth.387 As in the case of value, he offers no clear definition of economic wealth (κτῆσις). It is defined indiscriminately as “whatever is useful to life,” and “useful” is “everything that anyone knows how to use.”388 But, as seen above, this is a purely subjective notion, and is only one element in economic wealth.389 He also defines it (χρήματα) as “the excess of goods over needs,” making it a merely relative term:390 but here again the thought is ethical rather than economic, an attempt to teach the somewhat ascetic principle that a man’s riches are measured by the paucity of his wants.391 The hostile or indifferent attitude to wealth is also assumed in the comparison of it with so-called mental wealth and wisdom392 and in the implication that it involves many cares.393 The idea so prominent in Plato, however, that the acquisition or expenditure of great wealth is not consistent with justice, is not emphasized by Xenophon. He calls that man happiest who has best succeeded in just acquisition, and who uses his wealth in the best manner.394